Keeper of the Seven Keys?

Early Ottoman Printing: The Müteferrika Press

(Benua Siam dalam UUK yang di update oleh Syeikh Abdul Jalil Kadhi Besar Empayar Islam Benua Siam-Kedah di zaman Syarif Syah bukanlah khayalan semata)

This map of the Indian Ocean and the China Sea was engraved in 1728 by the Hungarian-born Ottoman cartographer and publisher Ibrahim Müteferrika; it is one of a series that illustrated Kâtib Çelebi’s Cihannuma (Universal Geography), the first printed book of maps and drawings to appear in the Islamic world. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Early Ottoman Printing: The Müteferrika Press 


Ibrahim Müteferrika (1674 – 1745) was a Transylvanian-born Ottoman polymath: a publisher, printer, courtier, diplomat, man of letters, astronomer, historian, historiographer, Islamic scholar and theologian, sociologist and the first Muslim to run a printing press with movable Arabic type. His volumes, printed in Istanbul and using custom-made fonts, are occasionally referred to as “Turkish incunabula”. Muteferrika, whose last name derived from his employment as a müteferrika, head of the household, under Sultan Ahmed III and during the Tulip Era, was also a geographer, astronomer, and philosopher.

Among the works published by Müteferrika were historical and generically scientific works, as well as Katip Çelebi's world atlas Cihannüma (loosely translated as The Mirror of the World or the World Seer).^[2

Teratai, Kemboja, Chempaka, Tulip (Ottoman Era)

Kias Tersirat Empayar Ottoman.

About the Seven Seas 

Route to China In the 9th century AD, the Muslim author Ya'qubi wrote:

"Whoever wants to go to China must cross seven seas, each one with its own color and wind and fish and breeze, completely unlike the sea that lies beside it. The first of them is the Sea of Fars, which men sail setting out from Siraf. It ends at Ra’s al-Jumha; it is a strait where pearls are fished. The second sea begins at Ra’s al-Jumha and is called Larwi. It is a big sea, and in it is the Island of Waqwaq and others that belong to the Zanj. These islands have kings. One can only sail this sea by the stars. It contains huge fish, and in it are many wonders and things that pass description. The third sea is called Harkand, and in it lies the Island of Sarandib, in which are precious stones and rubies. Here are islands with kings, but there is one king over them. In the islands of this sea grow bamboo and rattan. The fourth sea is called Kalah-Bar and is shallow and filled with huge serpents. Sometimes they ride the wind and smash ships. Here are islands where the camphor tree grows. (ingat kisah Kafur Bahrus dan Wahab Abi Qabahah dalam Realiti March yang lepas?) The fifth sea is called Salahit and is very large and filled with wonders. The sixth sea is called Kardanj; it is very rainy. The seventh sea is called the sea of Sanji, also known as Kanjli. It is the sea of China; one is driven by the south wind until one reaches a freshwater bay, along which are fortified places and cities, until one reaches Khanfu."[2]

updates
"As a result of Huang Ch’ao’s sack of Canton and the political uncertainty in southern China in the wake of his rebellion, the pattern of maritime trade changed. Al-Mas‘udi’s informant on Chinese affairs, the Sirafi merchant Abu Zayd, told him, “Today the city of Kalah [in Malaya] is the terminus for Muslim vessels from Siraf and Oman. Here they meet the ships from China. But this was not so in the past. Formerly, ships from China sailed directly to Oman, Siraf, the coast of Persia and Bahrain, al-Ubulla and Basra, and ships from these places sailed directly to China. It is only since people could no longer trust in the justice of governments and in their good intentions and since the state of China has become what we have described that merchants meet at this intermediate point.”

updates UUK ms XV

"(o) Syahbandar, mata-mata, dan enam tujuh orang teman mereka ditugaskan untuk membuat pemeriksaan dikawasan pasar dan menangkap orang yang berjudi, menyabung, bertaruh, makan madat, minum arak dan tuak, dan menipu ketika berjual beli. Mereka yang melawan dihukum bunuh dan dirampas hartanya yang dilarang itu. Pada tiap-tiap tahun, syahbandar dan mata-mata dikehendaki mendaftarkan semua persembahan nakhoda kapal dan menyatakan persembahan nakhoda kapal dan menyatakan jenisnya untuk memudahkan urusniaga bagi tahun yang berikutnya"

(diatas ini adalah sistem perlabuhan yang diamalkan oleh UUK dalam memastikan keselamatan dan keamanan para pedagang yang berlabuh di Kalah pada suatu ketika dahulu. Membuktikan kerajaan ini sudah ada sistem log dan rekod yang baik. Jadi apakah dosa UUK pada umat Melayu hari ini sampai nak dikutuk dan dihina. Padahal manuskrip inilah menjadi bukti nyata akan ketinggian adab budi dan kepercayaan bangsa asing terhadap pemerintahan dan keadilan Melayu menjalankan pemerintahan Islam di Benua Siam ini sejak zaman berzaman)

This passage demonstrates the Seven Seas as referenced in Medieval Arabian literature: the Persian Gulf ("Sea of Fars"), the Gulf of Khambhat ("Sea of Larwi"[3]), the Bay of Bengal ("Sea of Harkand"[4]), the Strait of Malacca ("Sea of Kalah"[5]), the Singapore Strait ("Sea of Salahit"[6]), the Gulf of Thailand ("Sea of Kardanj"[5]), and the South China Sea ("Sea of Sanji"[7])

This stele, erected in 781 in Xi’an, includes a list of 70 Nestorians who, with Arabs and Persians, were active traders in China during Umayyad and Abbasid times. FRITS HOLM / PAUL CARIS, ED.: THE NESTORIAN MONUMENT, CHICAGO, 1909 / COURTESY DANIEL WAUGH, SILK ROAD SEATTLE

In Mediaeval Arabian Usage and Literature The Arabians and their near neighbours considered the Seven Seas بحار العالم ، سبعة البحار to be the seas that they encountered in their voyages to The East. They were trading routes in ancient times and since the time of the Phrophet Mohammed, they are the places where Islam spread and is widely practised.

the Bay of Bengal - The Sea of Harkand

the Gulf of Khambhat. - The Sea of Larwi (Gujarat, India)

the Strait of Malacca - The Sea of Kalah (Between Sumatra and Malaya)

the Persian Gulf - The Sea of Fars

the Singapore Strait - The Sea of Salahit

the South China Sea - The Sea of Sanji

the Gulf of Thailand {SIAM}- The Sea of Kardanj

Their "Arabian seven seas" بحار العالم ، سبعة البحار must also have considered other important seas nearby which were navigated by Arabian and Phoenician seafarers:

the Arabian Sea

the Black Sea

the Caspian Sea

the Indian Ocean

the Mediterranean Sea

the Red Sea